Back to our usual weekly schedule Lovies~

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The next morning Iruka woke up at 6 am. She assumed they'd do training up until school started so she packed her school uniform and her school bags. She grabbed a few buns before heading out the door. On the train ride to school, she texted Izuku and Katsuki to let them know that she won't be walking with them to school that day.

Hitoshi's place was much closer to the school but he still needed to use the train to get there so he and Iruka decided it was best for them to meet up at the station and walked to the school together.

"How brutal do you think the training is going to be?" Hitoshi asked.

"Well knowing Aizawa sensei he'd probably work us to the bone. I mean he was rather brutal during training yesterday and that was only quirk training."

They dropped their bags on one of the benches before starting with some light stretches. They chatted about nothing as they waited for Shota.

"Of course he's late," Iruka mumbled.

"Do you think he's coming anytime soon? I could use some breakfast." Iruka shook her head in disapproval. She took out a bun from her bag and tossed it to him.

"You should really eat especially before training."

Soon their training began. Shota had Iruka run 15 rounds around the field while he had Hitoshi run 5. Hitoshi could barely finish his 5 rounds without being ready to flop over and take a nap. He looked at Iruka barely breaking a sweat as she did her rounds.

"She's incredible." Hitoshi praised.

"That's what a future pro looks like and if you're planning to be one you better get that endurance up. Come on I want to see you do a few more exercises." Hitoshi nodded.

Once Iruka was done with her rounds she joined Hitoshi in doing some sit-ups, crunches, push ups and a whole plethora of exercises that Hitoshi didn't even know existed.

Shota had purposely made it so Iruka did twice the amount of exercises Hitoshi got knowing full well what her limit was. Didn't stop it from feeling like hell for both of them. Even with the short breaks in between they still felt like hell.

"How.. are... you... doing... that?" Hitoshi panted out after a few more laps

"Doing what?"

"Aizawa sensei gives you twice as much work as I do. How do you not die?"

"The knowledge that this is what'll make me win the sports festival." Iruka wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sadly already drenched sleeve.

"Good enough for me." And then they went off again. The entire morning was just a repeat of their exercises and breaks.

By the end of it, both Iruka and Hitoshi were just blobs of sweat on the floor, exhausted.

"You two should get changed, class starts in 20 minutes." Iruka held out a thumbs up and said something Shota couldn't hear.

"So how long do we have to do this?"

"Until the sports festival which is in 2 weeks." Hitoshi groaned. "Oh don't be like that. You're the one that wants to join the hero course. This is only a taste of what it'll be like." Iruka got up from the ground not even bothering to brush herself off. She turned to Hitoshi when she heard him laugh.

"Your hair looks like a mop." He laughed out.

"Ugh I'll just have Kacchan fix it later. I'm sure he and Izuku will be at school soon. Hey stop laughing." Iruka chased Hitoshi to the locker room.

After Iruka and Hitoshi got changed they both headed to class looking dead. Iruka particularly looked like a ghost with her messy hair and pale face. Iruka waved to her friend before going to her class.

When she walked in she was glad to see Katsuki and Izuku at their seats. She collapsed straight into her seat.

"You ok Iru?" Izuku asked her.

"Fine, just had some training."

"Your hair is a mess Whiskers. Come on let me make it look less like someone puked out a furball"

"Gee thanks Kacchan. At least Shinsou called it a mop." Iruka got up and dragged her seat so she was right next to Katsuki.

"Which one would have been better?" Izuku asked as Katsuki worked on Iruka's hair.

"Neither."

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"Ah shoot I'm going to be late." Iruka rushed towards her neighbourhood. She was feeling adventurous that day and decided to go to the alleyways in the next neighbourhood over.

Iruka barely made it home in time for curfew, maybe 20 minutes over but that was fine, she was late here and there.

"You're late," Shota said sternly.

"I- uh right sorry about that." Iruka hesitantly said.

"Didn't I tell you before not to be home late?" He said, his tone a little rougher than usual.

"I- I know I was just c-caught up with some stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Uh, n-nothing important."

"Iruka," Shota raised his voice slightly. Hizashi had walked in to see what was going on. It was rare for Shota to raise his voice at Iruka.

"Come on Little Listener you can tell us."

"It's n-nothing really." Iruka wasn't looking at either of her parents at this point.

"If it was nothing you wouldn't be stuttering Iruka." Shota looked at the bag that was still swung over her shoulder. It was covered in dirt which was odd considering it was perfectly clean earlier that day. Shota looked back at Iruka. "Are you still doing vigilante work?" No reply, "Iruka you know that's dangerous especially now."

"What do you expect me to do Dad? I can't just not help people in need. I can't hope that there's a hero around to help them. Not every hero is like you dad." Iruka huffed out feeling rather annoyed, not sure at who though.

"That still doesn't excuse you from doing it. What happens if you're up against someone who you can't handle?" Shota shot back trying to prove a point.

"Suck it up and fight. How am I supposed to be a hero if I can't fight a few jerks? You can't expect me to leave a child to fend for themselves. People get raped, kidnapped and even murdered in broad daylight and it makes me sick." Iruka thought back to all the horrible things she's seen people try to do. She was shaking and she could barely breathe.

"Hey wait Iruka-" Shota started but to no avail. Iruka took a step back as if avoiding something, something she thought she had long forgotten.

"If you can't even let me help then what's the point?"She spoke in a soft voice. She dropped her bag and rushed out the door. Shota tried to follow after but she was too quick. Iruka had taken to the skies.

"I'm sure she wouldn't go far let's go find her," Hizashi said, patting his husband's shoulder.

Iruka was flying aimlessly, she didn't know where she was heading. She didn't know what she was thinking. The only thing playing in her head was yelling. She wasn't sure who was yelling and what they were yelling but it was yelling.

Soon she found herself curled up in an alleyway behind a dumpster. She wasn't thinking she just needed to calm down. Her breathing was ragged and her thoughts we're nothing but yelling and she just needed it to stop.

"Lookie what we have here fellas. A cute little high schooler." Someone said. Iruka hadn't noticed there were people around and was a little shocked to see she had been surrounded. Sure they were lowly thugs but that didn't make things any better.

"Aww boo hoo, she's crying. Why don't we take her and make her feel all better." One of them said. Iruka cringed in disgust. Perverts.

One of them tried to move closer but Iruka moved fast. She jumped up from the ground and had transformed to take flight but her leg was caught by something.

One of the men seemed to have changed their arm into a rope and pulled Iruka back to the ground. She was slammed into the ground face first. She looked around finding an opening. The guy with the rope arms tried to get a hold of Iruka's hand but she pulled back in time.

Iruka's only choice was to face them head-on. She ran towards one of them full speed with the intent of knocking them out of the way. When she tried to transform instead of her whole body changing it was only her hand, it was an elephant's feet and she used it to slam the man in front of her into the ground.

She didn't have time to think about what had just happened so she once again took to the skies but once again the only thing that had changed was her hands, they had become giant red wings and she used them to take flight.

Iruka was barely out of the alleyway when she felt a rope around her leg once more.

"Don't think you'll get away from us that easily." The man who was holding onto her said. Iruka tried to shake him off but to no avail.

She darted straight for the ground and before touching down she transformed, this time fully, into a lion. Although she wasn't injured from the impact the man wasn't so lucky. The force of the fall had knocked him out which allowed Iruka to run out into the streets.

Her head still wasn't thinking straight. Get out get out. I have to go. I have to get home. Home? Where's home? How do I get home? Out of nowhere, Iruka felt a jolt of electricity.

"Gotcha now brat." It was another one of those thugs. Iruka felt another shot of electricity but ignored it and kept running. She had found herself on the main street. Not many people were around but it wasn't quite empty.

Must've looked either terrifying or hilarious seeing this massive lion running away from a human taser. Of course, Iruka's reaction was either to run or fight and her brain chose the latter.

It was a much more open space giving her full range. She lunged at the man that once again electrocuted her. She didn't think the voltage was too high considering how little it hurt but that could've been her rush of adrenaline or the man trying to not kill Iruka.

Iruka pinned the man to the ground growling at him. Before she could do anything she had been pulled back by something. She turned to see a man wearing all black and a scarf. He seemed familiar but it was as if his face had been blurred out. Iruka roared at the man for him to back off.

"What the hell is a lion doing here," Shota said, trying to get a grip on it when he had an idea. He activated his quirk which seemed to affect the lion. It started to thrash around as if it was trying to get something out of its head.

Leave me alone, I just want to go home. I want to go home, please. Iruka thought as the pain in her head grew larger. Soon she shifted from lion to human and back. She looked at the man whose hair was floating. She changed back into a human and before passing out she said, "Please I just want to go home." Tears were running down her face before she fell to the ground.

Shota rushed over to his daughter while Hizashi dealt with the man Iruka had pinned to the ground. He looked towards the blond before picking up Iruka bridal style.

"Get her home I'll deal with things here." Shota nodded and headed home.

When he did, he laid Iruka on the couch not wanting to get her bed all dirty. He kneeled and placed a hand on her forehead.

"You really know how to give us a heart attack huh kid. Get some rest you're home now." Shota sighed. He got up to get a cloth to both clean Iruka up as best he could and to place it on Iruka's forehead.

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Ahh it's good to be back everyone!

I'll be going back to posting every week so thank you all for being patient with me ❤.

Many thank yous to elenaito for editing the chapter.

Thank you for reading this chapter and if you like it do vote and/or leave a comment.

Have a lovely day, night, weekend,  whenever, wherever you are.

Stay safe, stay healthy,

Bye Lovies~